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The 100 most-cited and 100 most-mentioned COVID-19-related radiological articles: a comparative bibliometric analysis

  • Imaging Informatics and Artificial Intelligence
  • Published:
European Radiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objectives

This study aimed to identify the 100 most-cited and 100 most-mentioned coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19)–related radiological articles and compare their characteristics.

Materials and methods

We searched the Web of Science and Altmetric.com using the search terms “COVID,” “COVID-19,” “Coronavirus,” “SARS-CoV-2,” “nCoV,” and “pandemic” to identify the most-cited and most-mentioned COVID-19-related articles. We identified the top 100 most-cited and 100 most-mentioned articles in the field of radiology, regardless of their publication journal. We extracted the information from the listed articles and compared the characteristics between the most-cited and most-mentioned.

Results

Thirty (30%) articles were featured in the lists of the most-cited and most-mentioned articles. The comparison of the 100 most-cited and most-mentioned articles on each list showed that the most frequently cited articles were published in November 2020 and before (p < .001), originated from China (p < .001), covered the topic of diagnosis of COVID-19 (p < .001), and were related to the subspecialty of pulmonary imaging (p < .001); the most frequently mentioned articles were published in December 2020 and after (p < .001), originated from the USA (p < .001), covered the topic of diagnosis of sequelae of COVID-19 (p = .013) and post-vaccination complications (p < .001), and were related to the subspecialties of cardiac imaging (p < .001) and neuroradiology (p < .013).

Conclusion

Significant differences were observed in publication date, country of origin, topic, and subspecialty of scientific knowledge related to COVID-19 in the field of radiology, between citation and public dissemination.

Clinical relevance statement

This bibliometric analysis compares the 100 most-cited and 100 most-mentioned COVID-19-related radiologic articles, aiming to provide valuable insights into the patterns of knowledge dissemination during the pandemic era.

Key Points

• Thirty articles were featured on the lists of the 100 most-cited and 100 most-mentioned COVID-19-related articles.

• The 70 unique most-cited articles more frequently originated from China (48.6%), while the unique most-mentioned articles more frequently originated from the USA (51.4%) (p < 0.001).

• The 70 unique most-mentioned articles were more frequently related to cardiac imaging (25.7% vs.0%, p < 0.001) and neuroradiology (15.7% vs. 1.4%, p < 0.005) compared to the unique most-mentioned articles.

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Abbreviations

AAS:

Altmetric Attention Score

COVID-19:

Coronavirus disease-2019

CT:

Computed tomography

IF:

Impact factor

MRI:

Magnetic resonance imaging

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Funding

There are no financial conflicts of interest to disclose.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Dae Young Yoon and Sora Baek contributed equally as co-corresponding authors for this study.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Kangdong Seong-Sim Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, 150, Seongan-Ro, Gangdong-Gu, Seoul, 05355, Republic of Korea

    Jiyeon Ha, Dae Young Yoon, Sora Baek, Chae Woon Lee, Kyoung Ja Lim, Young Lan Seo & Eun Joo Yun

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  1. Jiyeon Ha
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  2. Dae Young Yoon
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Dae Young Yoon or Sora Baek.

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Guarantor

The scientific guarantor of this publication is Dae Young Yoon.

Conflict of interest

We have no conflict of interest to declare.

Statistics and biometry

No complex statistical methods were necessary for this paper.

Informed consent

Written informed consent was not required for this bibliometric analysis.

Ethical approval

Institutional Review Board approval was not required for this bibliometric analysis.

Study subjects or cohorts overlap

No overlapped study subject for this study.

Methodology

  • retrospective

  • bibliometric analysis

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Ha, J., Yoon, D.Y., Baek, S. et al. The 100 most-cited and 100 most-mentioned COVID-19-related radiological articles: a comparative bibliometric analysis. Eur Radiol 34, 1167–1175 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-023-10001-x

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